Meanwhile.
The afternoon sun was just right — bright without being harsh.
Haimer stepped out of [I Am Ganesha] and walked a short distance down the street. His pace never slowed. Almost without thinking, he let his gaze drift to the right and slightly behind him.
Several rather clumsy pairs of eyes were trained on him from about a street's width away, flickering over in his direction every now and then.
Did these little rascals really think his instincts were just for show?
He didn't even need to concentrate.
Roughly thirty metres behind him and off to one side, behind a large wooden crate stacked with odds and ends — a gust of wind sent a familiar blue ribbon fluttering out from the edge of the crate. It drifted through the air twice, then fell back.
And if you looked more carefully, the crate wasn't nearly wide enough to conceal a certain goddess's rather magnificent upper silhouette. To make matters worse, half of a small leather-booted foot was sticking out from behind it, rising and falling on tiptoe in time with its owner's fidgeting.
This surveillance technique was, frankly, painful to witness.
Calling it a negative score would be generous.
If the rogues of Orario were all at this level, the Ganesha Familia's constabulary would have been out of a job long ago.
Haimer felt a laugh bubbling up inside him. He pulled his gaze away and gave a small shrug.
He'd pretend he hadn't seen a thing.
He kept the same unhurried stride and headed off toward the northern boulevard. After all, this afternoon was nothing more than a quick coffee to sort out a misunderstanding. If they wanted to tag along for the entertainment, they were welcome to — he'd think of it as giving these girls, newly arrived in the Lower World, a tour of Orario's streets.
"Hmph. Hmph hmph."
"See that?"
"He didn't notice me at all."
Behind the wooden crate, Hestia poked half her head out, hands planted on her hips, watching Haimer's retreating figure grow smaller in the distance. The twin peaks on her chest gave a little bounce as she struck her triumphant pose, and her round face was absolutely radiant with self-satisfaction.
"That Haimer, same as ever — even after coming down to the Lower World, there's absolutely no way he could ever detect the tracking skills of the great Hestia!"
At those words, the handful of Haimer Familia girls hiding around the corner of the alley across the way exchanged glances with one another.
"I think…"
"Given Kami-sama's usual level of perception…"
"Hestia-sama, you had nearly half your body sticking out just now. Kami-sama almost certainly noticed you ages ago."
A disguise at that level — even they could see through it at a glance. To say nothing of Kami-sama.
Kikakujou Mary, standing nearby in plain clothes, nodded in quiet but wholehearted agreement.
"I think Kami-sama simply chose not to call Hestia-sama out."
Their original plan for the day had indeed been to accompany the Holy Emperor and Tendou Kisara, along with Aihara Enju and little Hiruko Kohina, on a shopping trip for clothes and daily necessities.
However.
It was still early, and the previous evening, during a casual chat, Inaba Tsukuyo had mentioned offhandedly that Kami-sama was being taken to a café by that elf lady this afternoon.
And with that, the gossip fire in every one of the girls blazed to life at once.
Clothes could wait — they'd be there any day of the week.
Kami-sama going to meet an elf girl? That was not something they could miss.
And so what had been a simple shopping trip had, through sheer collective will, transformed itself into this elaborate covert-tailing operation.
"Speaking of which," said Kikakujou Mary, leaning against the brick wall, a thoughtful gleam passing through her water-blue eyes.
"Do you think there's any chance the elf lady might join our Familia?"
"If the elf lady were to join…" She ran her fingers through the golden hair that fell across her chest.
"If she did, the Holy Emperor's 『Utopia』 would definitely unlock a brand-new buff branch for the Elf race, wouldn't it."
It was a well-known fact that elves had an extraordinarily high affinity with magical energy. If the Familia gained even one elf member, the Holy Emperor's magic — 『Utopia』 — would be able to activate an elf-specific branch bonus on top of the existing buffs it already provided for humans and beast-people.
For the Familia's survival and combat capability during Dungeon expeditions, that would be nothing short of a qualitative leap forward.
"And besides, that elf is strong," said Amou Kirukiru.
She was leaning against the rough brick wall at the mouth of the alley, her long legs crossed at the ankle.
"The other day she deliberately suppressed her level to spar with me, and she was only using an ordinary wooden sword at that."
"But the kind of battle instinct she showed during the fight — the technique behind every strike — that's the kind of thing you only grind out through life-or-death combat at the highest intensity."
"Someone like that is no ordinary tavern waitress."
As she said it, a gleam of excitement flickered through those sharp, narrow eyes of hers.
"She must have spent time in a Familia that pushed combat strength to the absolute limit. The question is — why has she ended up carrying plates in a tavern?"
Hearing Amou Kirukiru's assessment, Onigawara Rin and Kikakujou Mary and the others couldn't help trading another look.
Because if Amou Kirukiru was giving praise like that, then the elf girl's past was growing more and more intriguing by the second.
At that very same moment, barely half a block from where Haimer was walking, inside a high-end clothing boutique called 『Velvet Iris』 — things were considerably less relaxed.
"N-No, really, I don't need it! I don't need this dress!"
At the narrow entrance to the fitting room, Syr had both hands clamped white-knuckled around the doorframe, her blue-grey eyes wide with undisguised panic.
That usual air of hers — always soft, always smiling, always prodding at people's hearts with some playful little remark — had been thoroughly, completely routed.
"Please, just let me go!" she pleaded, on the verge of tears. "I only came in to finish cleaning and get back to the orphanage to help out!"
This morning, she had come to the Hostess of Fertility as usual to cover the early shift that had gone unstaffed the day before. She had barely gotten halfway through cleaning when Ryu, who had apparently been lying in wait, grabbed her by the wrist without a single word of explanation and physically hauled her here to this street.
And the worst part of it was — when Ryu told her that this afternoon she was bringing her to meet Haimer, Syr felt the blood drain from her head entirely.
Others might not know who Haimer really was. But she — as Freya — knew perfectly well.
And yet Ryu, stubborn and unyielding as ever, had latched onto this particular mission with an almost single-minded fixation, utterly determined to drag Syr along to clear up this so-called misunderstanding in person.
Which was how Syr had ended up trapped inside this clothing shop, with no way forward and no way back.
"This won't do at all, nya!"
Just as Syr was eyeing an opportunity to make a break for it, two hands pressed down firmly on her shoulders from behind.
"Today is a big day — Ryu is going to apologise to that Kami-sama in person! She absolutely has to look her best!"
"How can she go meet someone dressed in her uniform like it's any ordinary day?"
Chloe stood behind Syr, her black cat ears pricked perfectly upright, green eyes blazing with a terrifying level of enthusiasm.
"Exactly, exactly!"
"And since you're coming along as a witness, Syr, you'll need to change too, nya!"
Anya was next to her, fanning the flames with vigorous abandon, a fistful of dresses in her arms — dresses that, by all appearances, did not contain a great deal of fabric.
"Lunor! Come take her measurements!" Chloe called out.
"On my way!"
Lunor stepped forward in response, soft measuring tape in hand, running it across Syr's frame with practiced efficiency.
"Goodness, that uniform is really getting in the way — I can't get an accurate reading."
Lunor muttered to herself, but her hands didn't stop for a moment. She reached out, yanked open the collar buttons on Syr's white blouse without ceremony, looped the tape around from behind, and pressed it snugly against her body.
"Ah!"
Syr let out a startled cry and instinctively tried to pull back.
But Lunor's measuring tape was already cinched tight and merciless. The soft tape sank deep into the fabric of her clothes, and the contours that had been so thoroughly hidden beneath the shapeless, unassuming tavern apron were suddenly, unambiguously, brought into the light.
That considerable endowment of hers nearly snapped the tape in two.
"Wow, Syr, your assets are practically cheating…"
Lunor swallowed, glanced down at her own chest, then back at Syr, and couldn't stop herself from murmuring under her breath:
"No wonder all the male customers at the tavern drool over you every single day."
She eased the tension on the tape slightly and draped it over her shoulder.
"If you went to meet Kami-sama in an off-shoulder dress looking like this, you'd steal his soul right out of his body!"
"Don't — don't say such things!"
Syr flushed scarlet with shame and frantically pulled her blouse back into place.
While all of this chaos was unfolding on one side of the shop, in a fitting room on the other side — there was nothing but silence.
The fitting room light was slightly dim.
Ryu stood in front of a full-length mirror, staring blankly at her own reflection.
…After all, this was the first time in all these years that she had set foot in a clothing boutique this fine.
Her usual green uniform had been tossed onto the rack to one side.
What she was wearing now was a pure white dress.
The fabric was extremely thin, with a silky, liquid texture, and the cut was close and fitted. The dress left nothing to the imagination — it displayed every line of an elf's distinctively tall, well-proportioned, supple figure without reservation.
The hem came only to mid-thigh, below which stretched a pair of long, slender legs. Beneath the clinging fabric, the taut, sculpted lines shaped by years of training radiated a kind of devastatingly pure allure.
This was the one Chloe had specifically picked out for her.
"Th-This dress…"
Ryu pressed both hands over the hem in a death grip, her sky-blue eyes full of turmoil. Her cheeks burned as if on fire, and even her breathing had grown unsteady. Her chest rose and fell rapidly.
"It's too short, it shows too much — this is absolutely not appropriate attire for going to apologise to someone…"
Ryu bit her lip, staring down at the stretch of thigh left bare.
"This is… this is completely indecent!"
For an elf with such an acute sense of propriety, walking down a public street dressed like this was tantamount to being paraded through town in her undergarments.
The curtain was yanked aside without warning.
Chloe stuck her head in shamelessly, leaning against the doorframe.
"Oh, my dear Ryu-ojou-sama."
Chloe looked Ryu up and down, clicking her tongue in theatrical appreciation.
"What do you know about this sort of thing? If you're going to apologise to Kami-sama in person, you have to show some sincerity, nya."
"And besides."
Chloe extended one finger and gave Ryu's shoulder a light poke.
"Those legs, that waist — what a waste, keeping them hidden all the time."
"Just think of it as your penance to Kami-sama for today!"
She gave Ryu's bare, pale shoulder a light tap with her fingertip.
The touch against her skin made Ryu instinctively hunch her neck.
Chloe spoke with perfect self-assurance, her green cat-eyes curving into crescents.
"S-Stop joking around!"
Ryu slapped Chloe's hand away. The tips of her ears burned crimson. She pressed her legs tightly together and tried desperately to tug the pitifully short hem downward — but this fitted, body-hugging little dress had not been designed with any tugging allowance in mind.
"I'm only going to clear up a misunderstanding… it's not like I'm going to… to…"
"Going to what? Seduce him, nya?"
"Chloe!"
The elf girl's voice shot up eight full octaves. All the usual cool composure was gone from her voice, replaced entirely by blazing, mortified outrage. Those sky-blue eyes went wide as saucers, and she looked fully prepared to flip the table then and there.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the shop, Syr was still engaged in her hopeless resistance against Lunor and the measuring tape.
The whole boutique had descended into utter pandemonium.
At that point, Anya — who had been stoking the fires from the sidelines the entire time — started to feel a little bored. She turned around, pressed both hands against the shop's enormous floor-to-ceiling glass window, and gazed out at the foot traffic passing by on the street, her brown cat tail swishing idly behind her.
Then, all at once — Anya's tail went rigid, snapping straight up like an antenna.
Her vertical green pupils dilated sharply as she locked eyes on something across the street.
Amid the bustling crowd, one figure stood out with unmistakable clarity. Simply by walking down the street, he carried an aura that made the people around him instinctively give way — the unconscious deference one shows in the presence of someone born to stand above the rest.
"Nya! Nya nya nya!"
"It's Kami-sama, nya!"
Anya's words yanked the attention of every other person in the shop straight to the window.
Syr, still locked in her tug-of-war with Lunor, heard that name and went rigid. Panic flashed through her eyes, and she reflexively moved to duck behind the curtain.
"Oh, it really is Kami-sama, nya!" Chloe poked her head out too, following Anya's line of sight.
"What a coincidence."
"Hey, hey! Ryu! Come look, nya!"
Anya turned her head, looked at the elf still huddled in the fitting room furiously clutching at her hem — and her eyes went round with sudden inspiration as a brilliant idea materialized in her brain.
"Since Kami-sama is right outside, nya!"
"I'll just call him in so he gets a first look at Ryu in that outfit!"
"I'm sure Kami-sama's eyes will absolutely light up, nya!"
And with that, this utterly oblivious little cat-person — who had never in her life learned to read the room — spun around, put her hand on the glass door handle, and opened her mouth wide to shout at the top of her lungs toward the street outside.
However.
The shout in Anya's throat had barely formed its first syllable.
A dull, heavy sound cracked through the air — like something dense slamming down and splintering the floor beneath it.
The next instant, before Chloe's suddenly contracting pupils could even track the movement —
A fierce gust of wind exploded outward from the direction of the fitting room, violent enough to send the entire rack of hanging clothes swaying and rattling with a crash.
Whoosh —
One second, Ryu had been agonising over her hem length inside the fitting room. The next, she was at the door.
Every trace of embarrassment had vanished from that refined face of hers.
What remained in her eyes was the absolute, all-in resolve of someone who had thrown self-preservation to the wind.
"Mmph——!"
Anya barely registered a flash of white before a hand was clamped over her mouth, iron-tight, stuffing the rest of her words back down her throat.
Then, immediately after:
"Shut your mouth, you stupid cat!"
Accompanied by Ryu's low snarl, forced out from between clenched teeth —
She grabbed Anya by the back of the neck with one hand and exploded off her back foot.
Whoosh.
Under the utterly dumbstruck gazes of Syr, Lunor, and Chloe — Ryu seized the thrashing Anya and physically hauled her back into the narrow fitting room.
And then immediately after —
BOOM——!!
A muffled crash rang out through the boutique.
Anya's back slammed into the load-bearing wall of the fitting room.
Under the completely uninhibited impact force of a Level 4 adventurer, the wall let out a teeth-aching shriek of fracturing material. With Anya's back as the epicenter, thick cracks radiated outward like a spiderweb, spreading in an instant.
Chunks of plaster and clouds of dust rained down.
"Owww… that really hurts, nya…"
Anya slid down the wall and crumpled to the floor, stars spinning in front of her eyes.
It had all happened so fast.
By the time Syr, Lunor, and Chloe came back to their senses —
"Uh…"
"Ryu just… she absolutely meant to kill her just now, right?"
Lunor swallowed hard, glancing at the wooden floorboards where Ryu had launched herself — the wood was faintly cracked from the force of her takeoff.
"Absolutely, nya…"
Chloe wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.
As for the shop clerk who had long since taken cover behind the counter, terrified out of her wits, she now poked half her head out trembling, staring at the cracked floor and the still-swaying clothes rack, face drained of all colour, on the verge of tears.
"Um… dear customers…"
"Damage to the floor and the walls will be charged at replacement cost…"
"NANI?!!"
※ ※ ※
DanMachi: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
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👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting in The Long Dark with My Waifus
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone